Baby #3

Wow, I have not been very good at writing about this pregnancy. I guess at first it was because I was just nervous of having another miscarriage so I didn't want to get too emotionally attached to have it potentially end in pain. Especially since when I did find out I was pregnant, my HCG levels were super low. (Like the first HCG test they took in the lab was 31, at what we think was right at 4 weeks on December 15 and the second test two days later was 141). They said that it was good that it was way more than double but that it was still low. 

Because of this, and having had a previous miscarriage, they scheduled me for an ultrasound at 8 weeks to check if there was a heartbeat. I was so nervous. We went in and saw our little baby. It had a heartbeat! But afterward when Dr. Huish talked with us, he said that it was a very weak heartbeat from what they would like to be seeing at that time. But he said to not be discouraged, that at that moment I was still pregnant and things could definitely still work out. But having just gone through a miscarriage so recently, I was still so scared. 

They wanted to check for a heartbeat one week later to see if it had strengthened. It thankfully had! And we were so happy and very grateful! They scheduled me for yet another ultrasound for 12 weeks to check on things again, since with my miscarriage before the baby developed till almost 9 weeks and then stopped and we didn't find out till 11 weeks. So we got to see our little baby again at 12 weeks and she still had a wonderful heartbeat and they sent us home with several pictures. 

The ultrasound was right before Valentine's Day so since everything checked out to be good, we decided to announce the pregnancy to our families. We made a little Valentine with an ultrasound picture and Face-timed our family and had Kimbri show them the Valentine. It was so funny to see their reactions! Them saying things like, Oh cute! And then taking a closer look and saying, Wait! Is that an ultrasound picture?! Hahaha! Why yes. Yes, it is. Everyone was thrilled and it was fun to share our excitement with our families :)

Here are some random pictures that I've taken of things throughout this pregnancy. I've had a folder on my desktop called "Baby #3" and have added pictures to it every so often, but like I mentioned before, I haven't been good about posting or writing anything. So now it's like one big photo dump from the entire pregnancy into one post! 

Yes, this is a picture of my prenatal vitamins. My friend told me about how I could ask my OB to write a prescription for prenatals because then you could get them through the pharmacy on insurance. I'm so glad she told me about that because vitamins are not cheap! 

Here are some pictures of just some of the "pregnancy cravings" I guess I've had. Or just things that I really like and pregnancy is a good excuse to eat them. Haha ;)

Pesto Pizza with broccoli, tomatoes and mozzarella! 

Claussen pickles are THE BEST! So yummy.
And yes, I buy the big jugs of them.

I saw this shirt at Ross and had to take a picture.
The thing about the pickles... so true!

Cold, crisp watermelon. SOOO good.

After finding out we were having a GIRL I got to pull out all of Kimbri's old clothes. I went through and organize them and washed them all. It was so fun to pull out things Kimbri used to wear and imagine another little baby girl wearing them. I'm so excited!

A bunch of freebies I got at the Babies R Us Baby fair that
I went to with my good friend, Erin. 

And of course,  after finding out we were expecting another girl, I had a bunch of projects I wanted to do like making baby blankets, some bows/headbands, burp cloths, etc...

A bow board that I made. I used an old frame I already had,
lined it with fabric and ribbon I already had and painted it a cute purple to match her room, with headbands hanging underneath.

Fabric-covered styrofoam balls as a decoration
handing in the corner of her room between the
changing table and the crib.

Working on another blanket.

You can never have too many burp cloths!

I made a nursing cover that can also be used as a
car seat cover, complete with a babydoll model.

I made some matching stretchy headbands for
the baby and Kimbri.

Pulling out all the baby stuff made Garrett and Kimbri very interested in what it was all for. Garrett proceeded to act like a baby that afternoon on the baby mat while I got things out.

Putting a babydoll in the bassinet with his blanket.

Aint nobody like the glucose test drink! Am I right?!

Since we have a deep freezer this time around, I figured I'd try and get several freezer meals prepared to have an easier time with meal planning after the baby is born. It's so nice to have a deep freezer!! 

I made two pans of meatballs, 2 bags of crockpot-ready bbq chicken, 1 bag of crockpot black bean & corn salsa chicken, cut up a bag of fresh veggies to whip up and easy stir-fry one night, crockpot Italian chicken and a bag of pesto chicken mixture to make paninis with. Can you tell that I really like chicken? I also stocked up on several of those easy microwavable steamer bags of different veggies to easily add to all the meals. And you can never go wrong with having a couple of bags of Trader Joe's orange chicken on hand. That stuff is SO yummy and way easy to whip up. We also bought a few frozen pizzas to have as an easy meal for a couple different nights. Hopefully with all of those meals, it will make cooking easier when this baby makes her appearance!

And finally, here are the dreaded pregnancy pictures. I always hate the act of taking belly pictures because I feel kind of awkward being like, "Here Rick, take a picture of me while I hold my growing belly." Haha... but I do admit that it's kind of fun to look back on them after a long time has passed and reminisce about it all. So here they are:

16 weeks

24.5 weeks

30 weeks

32 weeks

33 weeks

35 weeks

36 weeks